In 1961, a new and difficult work for strings announced the arrival of a composer with a new and difficult name for non-Polish speakers to pronounce: Krzysztof Penderecki.
Having lived as a young man under Nazi occupation and then under Poland’s repressive and ultra-conservative Communist regime, it’s not surprising, perhaps, that as a young composer Penderecki developed an ultra-modern, rebelliously experimental musical style. The success of his “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima” made Penderecki famous worldwide. Subsequent choral works, operas, and more experimental orchestral works followed for the next dozen years or so.
By 1973, however, he accepted a commission for a symphony and on today’s date that year, Penderecki himself conducted the first performance of his First Symphony, with the London Symphony at Peterborough Cathedral in central England. While his First Symphony remained in his aggressively experimental style, Penderecki would go on to write several more, each in much more conservative musical language, influenced by more traditional composers like Bruckner and Shostakovich.
JON BERG: This is the Composer's Datebook for July 19. I'm Jon Berg. In 1961, a new and difficult work for strings announced the arrival of a composer with a new and difficult name for non-Polish speakers to pronounce-- Krzysztof Penderecki. Having lived as a young man under Nazi occupation and then under Poland's repressive and ultraconservative Communist regime, it's not surprising that, as a young composer, Penderecki developed an ultra modern, rebelliously experimental musical style.
The success of his "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima" made Penderecki famous worldwide. Subsequent choral works, operas, and more experimental orchestral works followed for the next dozen years or so. By 1973, Penderecki accepted a commission for a symphony. And on today's date that year, Penderecki himself conducted the first performance of his first symphony with the London Symphony.
While his first symphony remained in his aggressively experimental style, Penderecki would go on to write several more, each in much more conservative musical language, influenced by more traditional composers like Bruckner and Shostakovich. My composing in this style, explained Penderecki, maybe goes a little back in time, but it goes back in order to go forward. Sometimes it's good to look back and learn from the past. Composers Datebook is produced by APM, American Public Media, in collaboration with the American Composers Forum, reminding you that all music was once new.